was 233,206, making Garland the 12th
most-populous city inTexas and 87thmost-
populous in the nation. In keeping with a
city of that size, Polocek's department
includes eight licensed engineers among a
full-timeworkforce of 30.
And thanks to both the population and the
number of significant employers in the city
– alongwith the fact thatGarland is actually
responsible for providing some services to
other municipalities – he eschewed
classifying Garland as just another Dallas
suburb.
“We border Dallas on our southern edge, so
yes, Garland is technically a suburb area of
Dallas,” he said. “But with almost 240,000
people, that's a pretty big suburb. We have
our own electric company, we have our own
water and waste water treatment. And we
treat waste water for (the nearby cities of )
Rowlett, Sachse Mesquite Sunnyvale and
Richardson.
“People depend on Garland for a lot, and
Garland itself is really pretty self-sufficient.”
Alongside self-sufficient, you can go ahead
and check the box for ever-changing, too.
Among the projects in the ongoing column
is a $7.8 million improvement that'll
transformPleasant Valley Road froma two-
lane asphalt layout with drainage ditches on
August-September 2014 | BusinessWorld | 161
